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So are ALL Galaxy S3's running 4.3 messed up?

J

joshm662

Member
EDIT::: Meant 4.3 in title! Sorry!

When you go to Virgin Mobiles website it says the Samsung Galaxy S3 is running Jellybean 4.3.. My question is, are all of those phones having issues too? I was going to have my phone replaced by VM because of some issues (I'm running the stock 4.1.2), but not if the phone they send me is running a faulty 4.3 OS.

Anyone have any info on the SIII's VM is selling directly with 4.3 pre-loaded? Are they junk too?
 
Fixed your title for you :)

Another idea perhaps worth considering is that you can downgrade your phone back to the official 4.1.2 firmware using a tool called odin. I'm not an expert on the subject, but if you posted over in the S3 section I'm sure some folks could point you in the right direction.
 
My S3 didn't have 4.3 pre-loaded, but I did get it as an OTA update about a week ago. So far, I haven't seen any of the problems that I've read about others having. No one's complained on Virgin Mobile's Facebook page either, so that's an encouraging sign too.
 
I updated through Kies, a few days ago and I have had a few problems, but nothing major. The first was with Chrome, but I think that may be an issue with the latest version of Chrome, as I've seen a lot of people saying it has been acting strange. I rolled back to an earlier version, and it is better. The second issue, is there is a noticeable lag time when switching between apps, which was not there before. I haven't had the battery issues other people have mentioned.
 
Thanks for the title edit :)

Anyways, my S3 has a warranty and VM is replacing it for free.. well the one I have now came with 4.1.2 preloaded and I've never seen any OS update EVER when using a VM phone.. anyways, they told me the one they are sending (the replacement phone) will have 4.3 preloaded onto it... that's why I was curious, I don't want to get a phone with 4.3 on it if it's going to be causing me nothing but problems... ya know?

Also, when you say you updated through "Kies"... how did you do that? I only have Kies Air on my phone and every time I open it it says I need Wi-Fi or Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot.. I don't have either.
 
joshm662 said:
Thanks for the title edit :)

Also, when you say you updated through "Kies"... how did you do that? I only have Kies Air on my phone and every time I open it it says I need Wi-Fi or Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot.. I don't have either.
Click to expand...


There is also a regular version of Kies software that you must run with your phone connected to your PC. Firmware updates (as well as some other functions) can only be done with this version. I had it installed on my PC, but had never used it. A few days ago, someone on here posted that 4.3 was available through Kies, and that was when I used it for the first time. You can also back up & restore certain data on your phone. You can get it through Samsung, or other download sites. Here is the link to Samsung:

SAMSUNG KIES
 
I have Kies installed on my computer.. it was the only way I could get my computer to recognize my cell phone was plugged in... not sure how to find the jelly bean update on Kies on my PC tho... not sure I want too either, but am curious since VM sent me another S3 so I can install 4.3 on this phone and see how it works.. if it messes it up i can always send it back to VM.
 
I don't have Kies installed on my PC and I have never used it, but I did get an over the air update to 4.3 this morning. Haven't had time to take a close look, but the settings function is really different.
 
joshm662 said:
I have Kies installed on my computer.. it was the only way I could get my computer to recognize my cell phone was plugged in... not sure how to find the jelly bean update on Kies on my PC tho... not sure I want too either, but am curious since VM sent me another S3 so I can install 4.3 on this phone and see how it works.. if it messes it up i can always send it back to VM.
Click to expand...

There was a message about new firmware, that popped up. I can't recall for sure, but I don't think the message was there when I used Kies light. but when I switched over to the regular version, it was there.
 
I got my S3 a couple days ago and it got the 4.3 update. It had been struggling to install "Virgin Mobile Default Configuration" which I think is IDEssentials? Anyway it finally installed but it got rid of my background, scrambled my home pages(lost widgets and shortcuts got new widgets and shortcuts). The weird thing is that half the stuff was for Boost not Virgin. I now have on my home screen the Virgin Mobile "Apps we love" widget, a Boost mobile background and none of my stuff.

Is this just my phone?

Update:
Just got off a mildly confusing call with tech support:
They said this a "new feature I should enjoy" and that it was intentional.

Recap:
Lost my home screens.
Got VM apps and widgets
Got shortcuts for boost mobile apps that were not installed (that right no app just a home screen shortcut)
Got a boost mobile background

Maybe I just have different definitions of "feature" and "enjoy"?
Time to redo my home screens...
 
I finally bit the bullet and upgrade my S3 to 4.3 via OTA.
Here's what I found:
Signal seems to be weaker. (Not good)
The icons in the "quick" setting from the top menu (where you swipe down from the home screen) are missing icon for turning off data. :( This was very useful.
The email is now more "Readable", before I had these wild huge font size (even after I tried to adjust them to "tiny").
LTE speed seems to be faster. In fact, before I upgrade, I tested it at 5-7mbps (5 tests). Immediately after it jumps to 7-9mbps.

Otherwise, everything feels and act the same...
 
hchen42 said:
I finally bit the bullet and upgrade my S3 to 4.3 via OTA.
Here's what I found:
Signal seems to be weaker. (Not good)
The icons in the "quick" setting from the top menu (where you swipe down from the home screen) are missing icon for turning off data. :( This was very useful.
The email is now more "Readable", before I had these wild huge font size (even after I tried to adjust them to "tiny").
LTE speed seems to be faster. In fact, before I upgrade, I tested it at 5-7mbps (5 tests). Immediately after it jumps to 7-9mbps.

Otherwise, everything feels and act the same...
Click to expand...

It seems like different people have different issues. My signal is much stronger when I am home. My main problem is the phone lags at times, where it never did before.

You can customize what is in your quick settings. Go into :settings", "my device", "display" then "notification panel"
 
metsfan99 said:
It seems like different people have different issues. My signal is much stronger when I am home. My main problem is the phone lags at times, where it never did before.

You can customize what is in your quick settings. Go into :settings", "my device", "display" then "notification panel"
Click to expand...

No lags on my phone, at least I haven't noticed any in 3 days.

Thanks for the advice on the notification panel. I still don't see an icon for toggling 4g/3g. Oh well, not critical. They had in before 4.3. But it was nice to get rid off some items I rarely use (ie s-beam).
 
hchen42 said:
No lags on my phone, at least I haven't noticed any in 3 days.

Thanks for the advice on the notification panel. I still don't see an icon for toggling 4g/3g. Oh well, not critical. They had in before 4.3. But it was nice to get rid off some items I rarely use (ie s-beam).
Click to expand...


There never was a 3G/4G toggle. When I first got the S3, I was looking for one, because I had the EVO previously, and that had a toggle. I then found out there wasn't one in the stock version. There are some apps, but they don't always work reliable. I just left mine the way it is.
 
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